Man who nabbed Quran arrested

This time, instead of getting the Quran, the skateboarder got arrested.

Jacob Isom, 24, of Amarillo, returned Sunday to Sam Houston Park in Amarillo, the scene of his 15 minutes of fame, where he hoped to derail Repent Amarillo’s David Grisham a second time, police said. Last fall, Isom made national headlines when he swiped the Quran from a grill where Grisham, a local street preacher, planned to burn the Muslim holy book.

On Sunday, Isom rode his bicycle into a reserved area at Sam Houston that included a stage where Grisham and another national headliner, the Rev. Terry Jones, a Gainesville, Fla., preacher, were to speak. Jones came to town to join a campaign rally for Grisham, who’s running for mayor.

Officers overheard Isom say he planned to interrupt Jones either by running onstage or kicking a soccer ball there, police said. Police arrested Isom about 3:10 p.m. after he ignored their demands to stop. Yellow police tape marked the reserved area which extended about 300 feet from the stage.

“We had asked him to stay out of the reserved area,” Amarillo police Sgt. Brent Barbee said.

Police booked Isom into the Potter County Detention Center on a charge of interference with a permittee, a city ordinance.

“Chalk that up as one success for this rally,” Grisham said.

Isom’s was the only arrest made during the rally, police said. Before his arrest, Isom called media and police Nazis and blamed media for his sudden notoriety.

Before Isom gained that notoriety, Jones became a focal point of attention not only from media but from the Obama administration over his plans to torch the Quran. Jones backed off after Defense Secretary Robert Gates called, but earlier this year had an associate set fire to the book, sparking deadly riots in the Middle East.

Grisham has said that before Isom swooped in last fall, he’d abandoned the planned burning because of concern for the safety of people reaching for the book.